“This is one of my favorite wines ever. Full-bodied, with layers of silky fruit and masses of currant, mineral and berry character. Amazing. It’s a wine with perfect structure, perfect strength. It’s 1961 Latour in modern clothes. It’s hard not to drink it now. ’89/’90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal. Best after 2008.” 100 points, Wine Spectator –JS

Originally rated 98 points by Robert Parker Jr – Wine Advocate in February 1993.

“Unquestionably the 1990 is the finest, most archetypical Latour since the 1982 and 1970. This monumental wine signals a return to the more forceful, opaquely colored, powerful, brute-like strength style for which Latour was famous during most of this century. The flirtation, intentional or otherwise, with a lighter style of wine is not apparent in this blockbuster. The 1990 exhibits tight but highly promising aromas of minerals, roasted nuts, and super-ripe, rich cassis fruit. It is an exceptionally powerful wine, with massive intensity, plenty of glycerin, as well as extraordinary extract and mouth-searing tannins that explode on the palate. Along with Margaux and Petrus, Latour is a strong favorite for the wine of the vintage! A triumph! Anticipated maturity: 2000-2035”.

Then downgraded to 95+ points by Robert Parker Jr. – Wine Advocate in June 2009 which is the last time Wine Advocate has “graded”.  “This is one of the more perplexing Latours to evaluate. It has plenty of sweetness as well as a gorgeous, rich fruitiness, but it lacks the firmness one finds in more recent great vintages such as 1996, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2008. There is plenty of sweet, ripe currant fruitiness, abundant glycerin, and full body, but I’m still waiting for that extra nuance of complexity to emerge. It’s all there, but the wine still seems to be more monolithic than one would expect in a wine approaching 19 years of age. It is not the sure-fire winner I thought it was in its youth, but then again, I don’t have any reason to doubt that more complexity will emerge. Anticipated maturity: 2016-2035.”